Zobar's Journal

06/17/2009 11:18 #48994

information

If anyone else is as riveted by the protests in Iran as I am, probably the most interesting information is coming from the liveblogs on the Guardian

and the Huffington Post

Certainly you should check other news outlets, but I've found that international news organizations only seem to report that they can't report, official news reports are unreliable, and Twitter is just totally useless at this point. Also a lot of people nattering on about social networking.

- Z

tinypliny - 06/19/09 08:30
Hmmm.. I am not riveted.

joshua - 06/17/09 14:17
I don't visit the Huffington Post for anything, although I am aware that a blogger there is considered to be one of better ones at the moment. I've been mainly reading media from the UK (Guardian, Times, BBC).

james - 06/17/09 12:54
We are so spoiled by having so much information on politics in this country that is is maddening we don't have much of anything in Iran. We have some eight month old polls, spotty results data, and reporters who are only in Mousavi strongholds.

GHA!

06/14/2009 21:44 #48978

hi score

I half-expected there would be a guy waiting for me in my driveway to shake my hand and give me a chocolate eclair.

- Z

tinypliny - 06/19/09 08:31
Should have gone and got yourself a treat! What did you have? (apart from stinky sausages?) ;-)

mrmike - 06/17/09 15:57
Uncut, a 2011? Did you get a car from the future?

theecarey - 06/15/09 13:37
sadly, no eclairs at 200,000 miles either. :( All important milestones should have donuts.

uncutsaniflush - 06/15/09 12:40
(e:jason) - yes, I have a bit over 160,000 miles on my 2011 Prius. The hybrid system including the batteries had a 10 year/100,000 mile warranty. It is my understanding from that the batteries were expected to last 10 years.

jason - 06/14/09 23:48
Uncut - are you saying you have 160k on your Prius? I thought the batteries might not last that long. Cool for you. I'm not the most knowledgeable in eco-tech or anything.

uncutsaniflush - 06/14/09 22:54
When my Prius hit 100,000 miles some 60,000 odd miles ago, I didn't get a chocolate eclair either.

Keep the Faith.

06/07/2009 10:26 #48861

small thoughts
Category: misc

I didn't think any of these really warranted their own post.

1. A couple of weeks ago, Federal had bogo bacon and cheap stuffed pork chops. Swine flu creates a global freak-out, and I reap all the benefits.

2. If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend Wolfram|Alpha

for when you need facts instead of web pages. It does math

conversions

geography

nutrition

chemistry

stocks

genetics

and probably more.

3. I've probably written about Spar's

before - if you eat meat and you haven't been there yet, don't wait until after barbeque season is over. They have a good selection of 'normal' foods - sausages for grilling, cold cuts, sandwich cheeses, slab bacon, ribs - and some Extremely European items just kind of mixed in. They've got blood & tongue, two kinds of Krakauer, three kinds of head cheese, probably half a dozen kinds of salami, and a wide variety of cheeses with uninformative names. I was about to get the horseradish cheddar when I thought - let's go with the German butter cheese. For future reference: it's pretty mild but HOLY CRAP IT STINKS.

4. The woman at Spar's gave me a slice of Hungarian head cheese for being so well-behaved.

- Z

tinypliny - 06/19/09 08:30
Spar's - too far away from home. :/

jbeatty - 06/08/09 10:56
I am a big supporter of Spar's. They have some really awesome stuff there. I love the Bangers and the smoked turkey breast. They are also the only place I know of that sells Slovenian cola.

uncutsaniflush - 06/07/09 21:26
When I was a younger man and didn't pretend to be vegetarian at home, I often ate blood and tongue and head cheese. I reckon it is my Polish peasant heritage.

Just about every time I drive by Spars, I think I should stop and take a look. The Lovely Lettuce a.k.a. (e:leetee) (the real vegetarian in our home) has threatened to go in there and buy me some keilbasa since I seem unable to do so myself.

05/28/2009 19:02 #48776

i can't help myself!
Category: compost

There's definitely something wrong with me.

To the driver of the orange Saturn VUE with New York State license plate #AGN-3258: check, mate.

n.b.: If I see your car as a personal challenge, you're definitely doing something wrong.

- Z

zobar - 05/29/09 09:38
Niiice - I don't think I'd ever actually risk damage or the fickle fortunes of the insurance company like that. You know that fender alone probably cost more than your van. [I know a guy who ran over a nail with a Porsche, and no dealership or mechanic would sell him fewer than four electronically-balanced low-profile performance tires at like $300 each].

(e:james): This was a parking job, not a mass suicide.

- Z

james - 05/28/09 23:54
Add in some Pictures For Sad Children and The Parking Lot is Full and you will have the ultimate web comic.

uncutsaniflush - 05/28/09 23:00
I feel the same way. I've had the same urge but I've not had the guts to actually do it.

On the other hand, when I lived in NYC, I was once stuck in traffic jam on Delancey just before the Williamsburg Bridge and some guy driving some sort of Italian sport car dared me to hit his car as he was trying to illegally merge into my lane. Normally, if people signal and play nice, I let people in front of me. But this time I wasn't. He didn't play nice or signal. I left about 6 feet between me and the car in front of me. The guy inched in front of me and his driver side front fender was on an angle about 6 inches from my bumper. When traffic started moving, I proceeded to go forward and so did he. CRASH!!! No damage to the van's bumper at 1 or 2 miles an hour but the guy's fender was not so lucky. I reckon he figured a working class stiff like me owed him the right of way. Ireckon he assumed facts not in evidence.

I get out of the van and he gets of his Ferrari or Masserati (I can't remember what it was over 20 years later) and starts cursing me in English and Italian. There was a cop directing traffic about 100 feet in front of us. I told the guy that I had the right of way and that he performed an illegal lane change. I told the guy that the van is insured and that we should get the cop to investigate the accident. That's when the guy said something in Italian that was probably really vulgar and got back in his car. I let him merge in front of me. For some reason, he didn't want to get the police involved.

tinypliny - 05/28/09 19:47
Only the violent car-sawing strips are in colour. Hmmmm...

05/18/2009 19:30 #48692

culture
Category: culture

As the Western terminus of the Erie Canal and an important part of Western New York's industrial heritage, North Tonawanda has a rich and interesting history. The North Tonawanda History Museum boggles my mind:

A couple of days ago, (e:dragonlady7) made me go with her to Big Lots. I told her it was a bad idea, since it was almost my naptime and when I get tired I cause trouble. She said it would be a short trip [it wasn't] and that they had good prices on patio furniture [they do, but they left me with no opinion whatsoever - either positive or negative - and it's tough to drop a couple hundred bucks on stuff like that]. (e:fi) said it would be a cultural experience. So I went but all I wanted to do was sleep on The Biggest Recliner

They had a pretty decent selection of all kinds of things, but their discount aisle [Big Lots has a discount aisle] was definitely weird.

So when we finally made it to the checkout counter, I was feeling a bit punchy. The guy behind us in line was buying a pretty big bottle of ketchup and I thought this was hilarious. In my mind, he was very self-conscious about the ketchup he was buying, like a man buying tampons for his wife. I really wanted to fuck with him. 'Hey man, that's a lot of ketchup.' 'What's with all the ketchup?' 'You are one ketchup-loving sumbuck.' But my instinct for self-preservation kicked in and I didn't want to have to explain to the emergency room why I picked a fight about ketchup.

- Z

tinypliny - 05/19/09 14:58
Was the bloke with the big ketchup bottle bald? You could have totally made some incendiary remarks about the ketchup + the bald guyz designer line then.

I laughed out so loud at this post, my office of 15 was ruffled. Hahaha